Blessed Jamison family

Week 2

mommajamison — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 20:42:09 +0000

Week 2 was a rather short week. It began on Tuesday due to some nasty colds that have been slowly going around the house here, and ended on Thursday. So we are a little behind, but that’s ok, I’m sure we’ll make it up somewhere along the way.

In History, we finished learning about the first people and moved onto Egypt. We went on a tour of the Great Pyramid in Egypt online. We learned all about the mummification process, and Peyton even “made” her own mummy online. We also examined hieroglyphs and Peyton was able to type her name, Lily’s, and Hailey’s using hieroglyphs.

Peyton, Lily, Hailey in hieroglyphs

In science, we focused on the water cycle this week. As we were learning about this, I found myself questioning whether or not Peyton was really understanding the material. Yesterday, we got some warm weather and instead of snow, it actually rained! We all were on our way to Walmart in the rain, when out of the blue, Peyton asked if the rain that was falling outside was part of the water cycle that we learned about this week. It was a pretty cool moment, as I listened to my 4 year old explain the water cycle and why it rains. Guess I don’t have to worry about whether or not she is learning

In math, Peyton worked on making and reading bar graphs with no problem. She actually has had a lot of practice already with bar graphs from using Jumpstart. We also started to focus on writing her numbers. This week, she just did the number one, which was pretty easy for her. I’m thinking next week, it will be a little more challenging for her to write the other numbers.

In Language Arts, Peyton practiced writing her last name. It was a bit of a challenge for her to keep the letters small enough to fit between the lines on the paper, but that will get better as the “year” progresses.

I should also warn everybody now. About once a week (sometimes more) Peyton has a creative expression assignment. The assignments vary each week, but basically Peyton has to “write” something (an invitation, a letter, etc) and give it to someone. The purpose of this is to give her a chance to brainstorm and organize her thoughts. So, don’t be surprised if you happen to receive something in the mail from Peyton

In her handwriting class, we focused on the lowercase B this week. We didn’t get a chance to practice the uppercase B because we got a little off track this week, but we’ll get to that next week.

We are still reading The Boxcar Children. Peyton is still doing very well focusing as we read a chapter each day. We should finish The Boxcar Children next week.

Now that we’ve been homeschooling for 2 weeks, I think I’ve become a little more comfortable with a schedule of some kind. I still have to make a poster of it to hang up, but this is pretty much how it’s been working out.

9:00-9:40 Circle Time (we read picture books, go over the weather and the calendar, etc)

9:40-10:00 Bible

10:00-10:30 P.E. (Mon, Wed, Fri)/Music (Tues)/Art (Thur)

10:30-11:00 Snack/Free Play

11:00-11:40 History/Geography

11:40-12:00 Jumpstart/Kumon worksheet (connect the dots and color by number)

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-1:40 Language Arts and Hooked on Phonics

1:40-2:15 Read Aloud Books

2:15-2:30 Math

2:30-3:00 Snack/Free Play

3:00-3:15 Handwriting

3:15-3:45 Science

I haven’t been strict with the schedule, but I’ve found that we’ve been pretty much going until almost 4pm everyday.

We’ve been trying to figure out how to go about setting up a “classroom” of some kind. Right now, I find us spending the mornings downstairs in the playroom and the afternoons upstairs, rotating between the couch, computer, and dining room table. We’ve thought about using the guest room that is downstairs and making the bed down there into a daybed and moving a desk in there. That way I can do the more academic stuff with Peyton in there while Lily and Hailey can play in the playroom next door. But, then I keep thinking of what will happen when Lily begins kindergarten in a couple of years? Both girls won’t be able to fit at a desk in the guest room then. Any ideas on this would be appreciated Until we get it figured out, we moved a small bookcase upstairs to the dining room. At least everything is organized near the table and it seems to working out much better having the bookcase.

I don’t really have any new pictures of the girls from this week. I should have more after next week to put on here. But, I do have a couple of Hailey Hailey started to eat rice cereal this past Friday, and has been very receptive of food. She also finally got an exersaucer and has been having a lot of fun playing with the toys on it.

Hailey's first spoon of rice cereal

Peyton having a turn feeding Hailey

Hailey in her new exersaucer

The First Week

mommajamison — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:02:33 +0000

The curriculum came a week and a half ago. It was like Christmas all over again here. Peyton was very excited and had to look at everything that was in the boxes. After going through everything, we decided to start kindergarten last Monday! Peyton woke up very excited that morning, she made sure she ate her breakfast (so she would have lots of energy), she picked out her own clothes and got dressed by herself, and even brushed her teeth and did her own hair…well attempted her own hair. I’m not quite sure where she gets her styling dna from yet…

First day of kindergarten

In History, we learned all about dinosaurs and the first people (what they wore, ate, and lived in). We took a trip to France and went on a tour of a cave there and saw all of the cave paintings and we decided to make our own!

Animal Tracks

We started to read The Boxcar Children also this week. I was surprised at how well Peyton paid attention as we read a chapter each day. I wasn’t sure how she would respond to reading chapter books, instead of picture books, like she is use to.

In Language Arts, Peyton practiced writing her first name.

Peyton also practiced “reading” Hailey stories by following pictures in some of her favorite picture books.

In Science, we learned that the Earth consists of three basic layers: crust, mantle, and core; that there are seven continents; and two hemispheres. We also examined the differences in the seasons. We did a science lab on how air is all around us and how even though a bottle appears empty, it really isn’t. We also began learning about tadpoles and Peyton has decided that this summer we are going to go camping and catch some tadpoles!

In Art, Peyton practiced drawing with a pencil. She had a difficult time with this since she had to come up with what to draw all of her own. But, the more that she practices, the better she does. Here is a picture of two cats that she drew.

Darla and Taylor

In music, we had fun listening to The Carnival of the Animals and pretended we were detectives and tried to figure out which animals were being portrayed by the music.

Overall, I think it was a pretty successful first week. Both girls really enjoyed getting back into the school atmosphere after taking a brief hiatus. Hailey enjoyed rolling around, watching us, and listening to all of the books as well.

Hailey and her Poodat shirt

I’m Back!

mommajamison — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:33:26 +0000

I can’t believe it’s been over a year (okay maybe closer to a year and a half) since I’ve last posted on here. A lot has happened since my last post. We are now a family of five with little Hailey! Lily has hair! (I just went back and looked at some pictures from the last post and realized how much the Peyton and Lily have changed). Peyton will be starting kindergarten!

It’s official, Josh and I have made the decision to continue with homeschooling past the preschool years. We took the plunge and ordered Peyton’s kindergarten curriculum, which should be arriving at the end of the week. After much researching, I decided to go with Sonlight Core K for Language Arts, History/Geography, Bible, Art, and Science; Singapore K for Math; A Reason for Handwriting for….you guessed it, Handwriting; we will continue using Hooked on Phonics (Peyton is finishing up Kindergarten Level 1 and will be soon starting Kindergarten Level 2); Gymnastics for P.E; Jumpstart for computer skills and to also reinforce academics; and last but not least we will be using God Made Kindermusic for Music. We’ve also decided that since we are homeschooling, we might as well take full advantage of it, so Peyton will be starting kindergarten if not this week, then next week (we are throwing out the ingrained “school calendar” from the system which says that you move up in September), and we are also going to be homeschooling year round so there won’t be any time constraints.

As for Lily, we will continue to learn through play and will also continue to use Sonlight 3/4 Core, we will begin Hooked on Phonics Preschool Level 1, and Jumpstart. Lily has also been enrolled into Pottytraining 101 and has been doing very well in it (I must say it is much easier pottytraining the second time around, guess I learned alot from Peyton), and she will get some P.E. by participating in the unstructured playtime at Gymnastics once a week (she will actually begin gymnastics in the fall).

Now about Hailey…she’ll just work on being a happy baby

Finally, it’s time for one of the most important things that you do at the beginning of a new “school year”…the picture!

Peyton's Kindergarten Picture

Lily's Preschool Picture

Hailey (5 months)

Hailey trying to learn how to drive

So there you have them! I am planning on keeping up with the blogging (at least try), so that I have another form of keeping track of the homeschooling process. Stay tuned for lots more pics and updates!

Meme and Pepe’s Visit Part 2

mommajamison — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:03:47 +0000

The second day that we spent in Rochester was filled with adventure. We headed out to go to a small beach that Meme and Pepe had discovered a few days before, but as we were enroute, we saw a sign that said Hamlin Beach this way. About a half hour later, we were amazed to find ourselves looking at a REAL beach right here in Rochester, NY! Who knew we lived this close to one? It had real sand and even seagulls! I felt like I was in Cape Cod all over again. The girls had a blast. We found out that Lily is a water baby at heart. Peyton loved making friends, playing in the sand, and chasing the seagulls.

Here is Peyton and the friends that she made within the first 5 minutes. She has no problem making friends no matter where we go.

Here is Meme relaxing on the sand.

Okay, so I never go too far away from my coffee…

Here is Daddy going for a stroll with Lily:

Peyton found a long, thin, white piece of wood that looked like a conductor’s baton. She picked it up and headed to the lifeguard chair. At first, she tried to sneak climbing up into the chair, but when that didn’t fly, she settled for sitting underneath the chair and conducted her own orchestra.

This is the seagull that Peyton fed her goldfish crackers to. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the seagull is surrounded by red and green goldfish crackers. Apparently, this particular seagull was colorblind and only ate the orange ones.

Meme's turn for Lily duty

: Meme and Lily striking a pose

Alright, so that’s part 2 of Meme and Pepe’s visit. Believe it or not, there is still more to come! I can only blog a little at a time, but at least I’m beginning to get caught up. So stay tuned for Part 3…

Meme and Pepe’s Visit

mommajamison — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:41:48 +0000

Meme and Pepe came for a visit too this summer. Pepe had a conference up in Rochester for a week. We were able to spend a couple of days up in Rochester with them and then they came down to our house for a few days after the conference before heading back home to sunny Florida….err I mean Alabama

Of course we had to take them to Farmland. Actually, Peyton had been asking to go back to Farmland ever since we got in the car to leave it last time Unfortunately, I was only able to get one picture of Pepe helping Peyton feed the goats before my camera died I know…I wasn’t being a responsible parent…sigh. But, here is the picture!

The first day that we spent in Rochester, we went to the Strong National Museum of Play, which was awesome! They had so many things to see and do there. Here is Josh and Peyton outside of the museum.

Our first stop was a big discovery room that had lots and lots of things to play with for kids of all ages. Here is a look into the future:

One of the little walls in the room had a bunch of little cubbies that you could open and see what was inside. Lily loved playing with these.

This is a room where everything was slanted. Lily liked walking around in here.

Our next stop…123 Sesame Street! They had an entire section set up for Sesame Street and Elmo’s World. I think this was Lily’s favorite part of the museum.

Here is Lily talking nonstop to Big Bird, Elmo, and Zoe here. She kept running back and forth between the cutouts, laughing, pointing, and talking.

Here is Peyton playing with the taxi cab that was set up there.

Our next stop was Wegmans, which is our local grocery store here. They had a Wegmans set up inside the museum where the kids were able to get their own shopping cart, walk around the store, and go shopping! Once they made their selections, they then had to wait in line, put their selections onto the conveyor belt, and then they had to rind themselves out. As soon as Peyton got her cart, she made a beeline for…the pizza!

However, Lily chose to stay in the produce section. Daddy had a hard time getting Lily to leave this section

Finally, Daddy was able to lure Lily away with some bananas.

While Lily was washing the bananas, Peyton decided it was time to check out. She ended up getting 3 blocks/wheels of cheese, 2 pizzas, and to make it look not so bad…1 carrot and a watermelon.

After our shopping trip, we headed over to the flight section. Here are Mommy and Peyton trying to figure out how to fly the fighter jet.

While we were flying, Meme took Lily to the giant table of Legos.

There were lots of other parts of the museum, but I didn’t take pictures for some reason They had a Bernstein Bear section, a train that you could ride, an Americana section (we didn’t go in that part because they had breakable stuff), and the entire upstairs was the actual “toy museum” where you get to feel really old as you walk through it and see all of the toys that you use to play with.

After the museum, we met up with Pepe for a nice dinner at a restaurant by the water where we could watch the boats go by. Then we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and the hot tub before going to bed. Stay tuned to part 2 of Meme and Pepe’s Visit…

Our Summer (part 2)

mommajamison — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:23:12 +0000

We finally got up the courage to try camping with the girls for the first time. We’re glad we did We had a lot of fun. We stayed close to home and went to Watkins Glen State Park, which is only about a half hour down the road. The girls didn’t mind being outside. Lily was a piece of cake. She didn’t seem to mind being in the pack n’ play at all. Peyton had a blast exploring and looking at things with her own flashlight.

Did I mention Peyton was excited?

Josh decided it would be fun to take the kids on a “hunt” around the campsite. I’m not quite sure what they were all hunting for, but it didn’t matter to the kids. They had fun bringing their flashlights and using stickers to mark the trees so they could find their way back to our campsite. (Yes, all of the stickers were removed from the trees on the return route)

Daddy and Lily hamming it up

Our tents

Lunchtime

Mommy and Lily

Our Summer

mommajamison — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:57:07 +0000

I hope everybody had a great summer! I know we had a blast finding new things to do each weekend here. School started last week, and I must say I do not miss it one bit. Fall has always been my favorite season, but it was always bittersweet because I was either young enough that I had to go to school or when I was older it meant I had to go back to work. I love being able to just enjoy my favorite season now. Like I said, we’ve really enjoyed being able to do new things that were close to home on the weekends. We found ourselves asking each other, “Why didn’t we do this before?”. But, I guess that is what happens when you have kids.

One of the things we did this summer (well we did it a couple of times) was to go blueberry picking. Each of these jugs holds about 4 lbs. of blueberries. It was a good thing that everybody loves blueberries here!

Getting ready to pick some berries

We found out that there was a huge petting zoo, called Farmland, that was only about a half hour from us. We went there and the kids absolutely loved it.

Peyton and Brent are like best friends. They are almost inseparable. Here they are cutting across one of the fields in search of a cow.

Peyton and Brent

Believe it or not, these goldfish are about 5 years old. (We found this out when we went for a hayride) Apparently, the owners of Farmland won these goldfish at one of the local county fairs and threw them into this little pond…and now look at them!

Here come the ducks! No, seriously….here come the ducks!

Then we found an old slide like the ones that Mommy and Daddy use to ride on when we were kids

Of course, I couldn’t miss this photo opp! Amanda would kill me if she knew I posted this on here…shh…

Here are the kids on the seesaw.

Then all of the kids went for their first pony ride.

Yes, even Lily had her shot at riding the pony.

They even had baby chicks and bunnies for sale. Yes, we were able to refrain from buying one for only $15!

What is that Daddy?

Quick!

Finally, we all went on a hayride…minus the hay.

Here are all 5 kids going from the youngest to the oldest (left to right).

Summer Is Here!

mommajamison — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:15:29 +0000

We’ve been staying busy this past week. We decided to sell our truck. We know God has His hand in that process. I listed the truck on Craigslist Monday afternoon, by 6pm that night we had a buyer. We spent the remainder of the week getting all of the bank stuff done so the guy could pick the truck up this past Saturday.

After we got rid of the truck on Saturday, we went to see the fireworks in Big Flats. Here are some pictures.

Getting ready for the fireworks to begin

Peyton with her glow in the dark wand

Lily with her giant thing of bubbles

Daddy and Lily getting ready for the big show

Monday was the big day for Peyton. She turned 3 years old! We decided to spend the afternoon at Harris Hill with Dan, Amanda, and their kids. We had a picnic lunch there. Peyton played on the playground for a little bit and then we went over to the ride section. They have 4 or 5 different kiddie rides. She had a lot of fun.

The Super Duper Computer from Super Why

Peyton and Abbie

Mommy and Daddy

Blowing out the candles

Present Time!

One of the party favors I had was a pair of sunglasses. Peyton is always asking for sunglasses like Mommy’s. Here is a picture of the kids wearing their shades!

Wearing our shades!

Lily's first time on the merry go round with Daddy

Peyton and Abbie riding together.

Riding together in a fighter plane

Before the saucer cups took off...

During the saucer cup ride

Lily's second time on the merry go round

Lily's first ride all by herself in the tugboat!

Peyton’s Eggstravaganza!

mommajamison — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:25:44 +0000

I had everything planned for taking the girls for a nice long walk around Corning. The farmer’s market was today, so I thought it would be nice to walk through that…Peyton had other plans though. I went back to get dressed…and when I came back out to the dining room, this is what greeted me.

Of course, she didn’t grab just a dozen eggs…nope she had to go for the whole 18! Needless to say, we didn’t make it for our walk. Does anybody know how to get egg out of a carpet?

What We’ve Been Up To…

mommajamison — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:49:48 +0000

I figured it was time to finally upload some pictures from the camera to here. We’ve been keeping pretty here. I moved Peyton up to the next level of curriculum that I’ve been following. She has been doing very well with it. Each week, we work on an upper and lower case letter and the sound that it makes. We’ve been trying to go on “field trips” on Saturdays as a family also. It’s been a lot of fun learning what is available to us around here. Here is a picture of Lily getting ready for church one morning.

Every year, the LPGA comes to town at the end of May for the Corning Classic. Unfortunately, this was the last year that the LPGA will come here. Josh has always wanted to go and see what it was like. He took a day off and took Peyton to see it this year! Peyton only lasted about it hour before I got the phone call to come pick her up (Apparently there is only so much she can take of watching balls fly) But, Josh had a great time. Here is a picture of Josh and Peyton before they left that morning.

The first field trip that we took the girls on was to the zoo in Binghamton because Aa is for Animals. It isn’t a big zoo, but it was just the right size for us and it was very clean. We had a lot of fun there.

The Big Turtle

Roadrunner

Bald Eagle

Sleepy Tiger

Let's go get some food for the animals

Hmm..that didn't work out the way it was suppose to Daddy

Then we did Bb is for the Bird Sanctuary in Ithaca. That was a really nice place to take the girls. They had really nice cedar paths to walk on and some really pretty views. We even got to see a fawn that looked like it was only a couple days old!

Look closely and you can see the baby fawn

Then we did Cc is for Canyon. We have a “Grand Canyon” near us in Wellsboro, PA. The views there were gorgeous. The pictures really do not do it justice. We spent the day walking around the canyon and then strolling around the cute town of Wellsboro.

This past Friday, our church sponsored a Family Swim Night at the local public pool. We took the girls and had a lot of fun. Here is Lily getting ready…don’t worry, we made her wait a half hour before getting into the pool

Lily snacking on a piece of cake after her swim

All tuckered out